** * Our Life with 12 Kids * **

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Today Sophia was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. Corey baptized her - here they are pre-Corey's jumpsuit.

And with Corey dressed and ready for the font.

Me, Sophi, and Corey.

My phone camera was a bit blurry. I'm almost thinking of switching to an iphone, since Ethan always lets me know how much better their camera quality is. And cause that's one of the things I use my phone for the most. It was a nice baptism. Abi and I gave talks. I shared a little message from Joseph in mine (at the end of this post on his mission blog). Hyrum and Wes gave prayers, the grandpa's were the witnesses for the baptism. We are grateful to be members of the church of Jesus Christ. All of our kids that are 8 and older have been baptized, eventhough only 2 are documented here on the blog (Abi's and Lily's). I know I took pictures of all of them. I should find a way to document those before the photos are lost forever and/or forgotten. Sophi looked so sweet. You gotta love 8 year olds.

Other than that, with the 3rd week of school under our belts, my body clock is pretty much set to waking up at 5:30. This morning I woke up at 5:09, and so I went to the temple! And I did a session! Good job me.

There was a lovely full harvest moon behind the temple. And the land that I love had it's banner waving in the wind. It looked really cool. This picture doesn't capture that, obviously, but it does help me remember the moment. The sun was up and shining when I was finished. On my way out the flowers wished me to have a good day.

You have a good day too, pretty flowers!

I stopped by Walmart on my way home to get some Epsom salts for Ethan's toe, hoping it heals this time. And I also got some refreshments for guests after Sophi's baptism (soy yogurt, bananas, and frozen berries). When I got home, my next priority was to upload a photo and get it printed, which I haven't done in YEARS. I printed this picture that I took of Sophi yesterday so that we could put it on the little table at her baptism.

She liked that one better because you couldn't see her teeth. I liked the one at the start of this blog post, but I realized after it was printed up in a 8x10 that you could see the spaghetti sauce that was on her face after dinner, oops! Mel came up for the baptism. But she slept in and was too late for the bus, so my sister Beka was nice and went to pick her up. They were the last ones to arrive, and as they came hustling into the church with their dresses and back packs, I thought they looked like sister missionaries!!

Mel will make a great missionary. She's planning on serving next summer, but we'll see if she gets married first while she's at BYU, ha. The kids were cute during the baptism.

I hope I can always remember the big and excited smile that was on Sophi's face as she came up out of the water. I hope she never forgets the happiness the gospel brings. She is such a good girl. Another one of my babies is all grown up!!

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Hello there. Today has just been a really good day. Yesterday we finally finished the girls room - so I'm super pleased with that and I even think we have a system in place that should keep it clean. The clothes situation has been their big hangup, but last week we decreased the amount of clothing and now I wash their laundry while they are at school (every other day) and then they fold it right when they get home. Yay.

So, the house is clean, and this morning I cleaned up the kitchen before I went for a walk. The whole house looks really good, and I've done most of it by myself (some deligated help) and am keeping it clean without a maid!! I was feeling happy with myself, grateful for the good Lord's help and enabling power. I'm learning violin, exercising, I'm planning my day, I'm on top of our finances (starting the Self Reliance initiative class tonight!) and yeah, I'm feeling legit impressed with myself. I am doing awesome with all I'm doing but it's especially impressive cause "I have 12 kids!!" The kid I was never dreamed of this life (wasn't on my radar) and the young mother I was never would have thought I could handle this much. So I'm grateful for what I've learned and that I just take it a year and a kid at a time and wow, look at how much I've grown into! I feel grateful for the health and strength the Lord has give me so that I physically can do so much. So, I was thinking all that this morning as I cleaned up the kitchen and then went for my morning walk. It was a lovely morning

Beautiful flowers, lovely cool fall weather coming on.

I just love all the sunflowers everywhere! I moved this snail so he wouldn't get run over by a bike or anything...

I saved a worm too. I found some lovely honeysuckles to smell...

I was feeling grateful, my heart was full

I sang a "Good Morning children! time to wake up for school!" as I woke up the girls. I tried to share the lovely honey suckle smell with Natalie, she gave me a sleepy look of irritation. I could tell she was not impressed. And then I laughed out loud when she said "It smells like your hand..."

K, I probably didn't grab enough of the flowers for you to experience the smell, but trust me, this smells so lovely!!! I tried to talk her into it, but then she said "Mom, we don't have time for this! We gotta get ready for school" That made me laugh. It's been a great day. I think the key difference maker has been the blue planner and planning my days!!! Plus it doesn't hurt to have this adorableness to enjoy everyday. I love being a mom!

Here is how it went. They started to turn dark last night, so I knew they'd come out this morning.

The one on the left looked great and normal.

The chrysalis on the right had me a little worried, I couldn't see it's orange wings very well through the chrysalis. It was just kinda dark all over. And it looked kinda fuzzy inside too around the abdomen... The one on the left came out first. This was our girl.

I had them taped above my desk in the laundry room. I took her outside and kept checking on the other one.

Yeah, it looked a little weird like it had mold inside. I was worried that it had died and wasn't going to emerge, so I kept checking on him. One one of my checks I found him starting to emerge, but stuck and upside down kicking his legs in a panic trying to get out of his chrysalis. I put my finger there for him to grab on, but he was stuck. I tried to peel off the chrysalis and lots of his color stuck the chrysalis, so that’s why he’s pale. Here are the pieces of his chrysalis -

The girl emerged perfectly normal. On the left there is how an empty chrysalis is supposed to look - clear and all intact.

The one that was stuck is something that I’ve never had happen before in all my years as a caterpillar farmer, ha, but I’m glad I was there so quickly when he came out and was able to help him. I just put him outside to hang and hoped for the best. When I checked on him later it looked like his wings had mostly expanded, phew!

They were just a little misshaped and with some poor coloring, but hopefully it doesn't make a difference in his survival. And if it does, well I guess I'll never know.

To quote P. Sherman "Beauty, isn't he? I found that guy struggling for life... and I saved him!" The girl is showing off her colorful wings... and then she flew up high into the tree.

I didn't see when the guy left. But I didn't find him on the grass, so here's wishing him a safe life. So while I was attending to birthing the butterflies all morning, I was also constantly checking on our mousetraps in the basement. The kids saw a mouse over the weekend. I went out first thing this morning to get traps. The kids all seemed to accept that this was the way it had to be even before it was dead. And the mouse passed away later this afternoon. When I found him he was twitching and it looked like he was fully alive and that the trap barely caught him by the mouth, so I thought he wasn't dead, doh. I went to tell Corey that I was sad that I was probably going to have to finish the job, but then when I came back with the garbage sack he was dead. Lily was the one who noticed him several times, and she was the only kid around so I told her I had the dead mouse and she came out with me. We told him sorry and then had a quick garbage side funeral service for him. Butterflies and caterpillars - good. Mouse - bad. Skunk - unfortunately they gotta go too. We see deer several times each week. We had another new first last month and had a rabbit in our window well. Deer and rabbits are our friends. Lady Bugs - good. Praying Mantis - cool and fun! Here's one we were playing with on a recent Sunday afternoon (Aug 25) -

Lily's turn...

Ethan's turn...

The fruit flies or other little bettle bugs that find their way all over the house - bad (but they keep the kids entertained. Here's Daniel killing one)

Sunday, September 8, 2019

Peter wore plaid to church today. When we got home we put a little knit hat on him, and I laughed that he looked like a little lumberjack. I think that is what I will have him be for Halloween! With the green suspenders that Daniel wore for our family pictures in 20018 and this plaid shirt that Daniel also wore during family pictures in 2017. Oh Peter, you are so beautiful!!!

He is sooo close to crawling. He is working on it more than I've ever seen any of our other babies practice. But it hasn't clicked quite yet, I think he has all the pieces, it's just figuring out how they piece together. You've almost got it Peter!!

Oh he's such a happy baby too. He is just perfect. Peter Perfect.

I started reading the book "Carried" today by Michelle Schmidt. Michelle and Jon Schmidt are coming to give a fireside at our Stake Center in a few weeks. Their fireside is titled "Trust in the Lord" - and they're going to be talking about their experience when their daughter Annie went missing. So I ordered this book to read in preparation. I knew I'd love it, and I do.

I'm over half way done, I'll probably finish it tomorrow. What an amazing example she and Jon are of faith and seeking the Lord in their life!!! I love it. I want to follow their example. I also could really relate to their financial struggles with Jon's career as a musician. Our financial struggles are hard for different reasons, but again, I could relate and I loved how they handled it. Good stuff.

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

It's Abi's Happy Birthday today. Abi is usually the one in charge of the birthday festivities around here. So last night I jokingly told her "Do you want to go put up the birthday decorations for yourself?" She said she would, and that she did last year too, and made her own cake, which I don't remember, but I believe it. It reminds me of the beginning of the movie "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" where he makes his own cake and decorates it "Happy Birthday Me..." lol. So Abi put up her decorations last night, but she only put ABI, so this morning I got up and I fixed it to say her whole name, and then I ran to the store (opens at 6am) and got donuts and ice cream - and I made it back in time to set it up before waking her up.

No one up to party with her yet, but that's ok, we'll celebrate with you after school!! And I also got her a box of chocolates and some brownies to take to school to share with her friends. :) Then I went on a walk and found two caterpillars on a neighbors' milkweed, cute little hungry babies!

And I also had one more come out of it's egg last night - an egg that I found at my parents' house yesterday in their neighbors yard (was just over the fence) after we got back from Colorado. So yay, 3 more babies!! If these 3 survive That will make this year better than last year, yay monarchs!

It was a busy day at home. I had a lot to do but didn't get as much done as I wanted - Peter didn't nap well or cooperate much. But I'll count my wins - got Sophi's baptism program done and the RS newsletter out. Didn't write to Joseph yet, will do that first thing in the morning. After the kids came home, we all had cake and ice cream.

Some ambiance...

And making a wish...

Wesley tried out a different Clayton group called "Celebrate" tonight. He liked it better, everyone was more his size, so that's good. And the last thing we did tonight was go to Costco, cause we were out of potatoes.

I took SEVEN kids to Costco, and honestly it wasn't that big of a deal. Cause I'm a true mother warrior!

Corey usually does come back with muffins, which is why I'd rather face the frontlines myself. I was made for this battle!

Ok, well, Abi and Lily helped... We got there at 7:50, were on our way home at 8:40. After we got home, we unloaded and were going to do violin, but didn't make it tonight cause the final birthday event arrived. A birthday is not a birthday without Iveth and Diego coming by! Happy Birthday Abi!!

Maria drew a picture for Abi (I think it was a portrait of Abi) that Abi is now keeping on her wall. It was cute. Then we all talked too late and now I can't fall asleep so I'm going to write Joseph a letter and then go to bed if I can. I think Abi had a good day, she is a doll.